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Arches National Park is one of our favorite places to visit. While this park wasn’t on our volcanic event list, we drove right past it. How could we not stop for a quick visit? We took a few hours off the road to stretch our legs and show the girls another American wonder. We took two short hikes. One involved Emily and Mama doing some climbing to get up into a window. Climbing to Double Arch was one of Emily’s favorite things. It allowed her to explore and complete a challenge. Together, the four of us took another hike to Turret Arch, North and South Windows. We look forward to returning and doing a lot more hiking and exploring. This stop was our last official stop of the trip. There were still a lot of hours to get home, but we had seen a lot. We are grateful for the wonderful things we could introduce the girls to and to discover their favorite things from this trip.

There is an unusual rock formation found in the remote Mono Lake in California. It is called “tufa tower” with spires and knobs composed of calcium carbonate. It is formed due to an interaction between the freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. We wanted to see them and got there just before dark. There was just enough light for our hike out to the lake to see them. The moon added a cool feature to our viewing. There was a lot of bird activity around the lake. Because of the water resource issues in California more and more of these towers are viewable. The hike from the parking lot was not long and the time of day we visited made the temperature fantastic. We stayed about a half an hour.

We gave ourselves two days to explore around Yosemite. It was just a taste of future trips. The first day we drove into the valley and looked up a lot. The girls could name the large rock formations and main waterfalls. They even spotted a fox that Mom and Dad missed. That night we camped at Hodgdon Meadow northwest of the valley. The campsite was busy and we had to hike our stuff in a little bit to get to our site. The trees around us gave us great shade and were huge. The next day we introduced the girls to even bigger trees.

The tree by our tent.

The next day we explored Mariposa Grove before we had to head on over the mountains. There is no way to explain how big the Giant Sequoias are. Even when looking at the grove of Sequoias it is hard to value the size until you can walk by or through one. We took a tram ride through the grove to get a better look at the trees. Common sense told us that if the girls had to hike the whole trail, they would miss the wonder because of being tired. We all enjoyed the ride and a short walk. Emily really picked up a lot of facts about the trees and loved being able to walk into one of them. We look forward to a return trip to this natural wonderland to explore further.

We had to work hard to hold this tree up. The middle of the tree is not necessary to bring food to the tree. One reason this tree can be so old and so big.

Crater Lake National Park is an old volcano that lost its top. Now in the crater of the volcano is the deepest lake in America. Early June is still an early time to visit this park. There were still piles of snow melting at the edges of the parking lot that was kept clear year round. The portions of the park that close for the snowy season were still closed. This limited the options for our visit. We stopped at the visitor center and took in the vista of the crater and lake. The views were amazing. No filter was required for any photos. The blue of the lake brilliant.

The funny thing we discovered at this site was the metal tunnels to the restroom entrances. Because this portion of the park remains open year round they want to make the restrooms also accessible year round. They have built metal tunnels from the parking lot to the entrance of each of the restroom doors to reduce the snow clearing work. There was not snow on or around them now, so it seemed a bit odd to have to hike through them to get to the doors. We only stayed an hour at the park since some sections were closed and to try to make up some lost time from our trip. It was definitely worth the stop.

We couldn’t drive all the way across the United States and not go the rest of the distance and see the Pacific Ocean. We visited Ecola State Park to get a little beach time. The water was cold, but that didn’t keep the surfers away. Despite the cold the girls played along the edge of the water until they just couldn’t help but get completely drenched. They also enjoyed arranging stones on the sand to dry out a bit. The day was pretty overcast, but tons of fun.

We would have loved to camp in this state park because the trees and ferns were just beautiful, but we needed to cover some distance that evening. We hung out for a couple of hours to get our sand and salt fill, stretch our legs, and accomplish seeing the pacific ocean.

The Mama got her feet wet too, but she resisted the complete drenching the girls enjoyed.

The coastline was beautiful and we were treated to the view of a distant lighthouse.

For Lewis and Clark fans this is a significant stop because it is where the expedition met the Pacific Ocean and wintered here. They had access to supplies and local tribes that assisted in their resupply. While we just made two stops, there were several places to visit in the area.

Our stop was a couple of hours long, but partly because Julia finished a nap before we went into the visitor center and both girls completed the Jr. ranger booklet.